1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a device for the winding of a ribbon-like material as disclosed in claim 1.
2. Description of the Related Art
Nowadays, contact elements used in particular in the field of electrical engineering are produced in large piece numbers with the aid of the stamping technique. In the process, the contact elements leave the stamping machine while being attached to at least one support strip, so that a ribbon-like material is obtained which consists of the aforementioned at least one support strip and the stamped out contact elements. In order to transport this ribbon-like material to a further processing step, for example for the galvanizing, the ribbon-like material is wound onto spools, wherein cardboard spools are frequently used for this.
These cardboard spools have the advantage of low cost and low weight which also keeps the transport costs low, wherein it is a further advantage that they can be recycled immediately after use. A cardboard spool of this type comprises a spool core and two circular side walls which are held in place by the spool core and—in the ideal case—extend parallel to each other.
In the simplest case, a device for winding the ribbon-like material onto such a spool comprises a drive motor which can put a rotating body into rotation. Extending outward from this rotating body is a shaft onto which the spool is fitted. Furthermore extending outward from this rotating body are mandrels, for example, which burrow into a side wall of such a cardboard spool, thus forming a temporary, rotationally fixed connection between the rotating body and the cardboard spool. In the simplest case, the spools, once they are full, are replaced manually by a person. However, more involved arrangements of this type are also known in the technical field, in which the spool replacement takes place automatically or semi-automatically.
One problem that frequently occurs when using the aforementioned cardboard spools is that the parallel orientation of the side walls cannot be perfectly maintained, meaning the side walls are slightly wavy, in particular along the edge region. In the worst case, the ribbon-like material to be wound onto the spool can thus be caught on one side wall of the cardboard spool, thereby resulting in damage to the produced components (in most cases these are contacts) or in a machine stop because the winding operation must be interrupted.
Starting therefrom, it is the object of the present invention to provide a device for the winding of ribbon-like material which functions without problem even if the cardboard spool used has side walls with uneven sections.